THE UNITED KINGDOM. 85 



ties. Oat straw and turnips in Aberdeenshire, wi thout hay, corn, or cake, 

 fatten many a. good ox for the London market. With good oat straw 

 ad libitum and an allowance of 10 stone of white turnips, or 7 stone 

 of swedes, a well-bred steer will fatten rapidly. Or, if 7 or 8 pounds of 

 mixed bean meal and linseed cake be giuen, one-half of the roots may 

 be withdrawn. A ton of such straw cut up and slightly fermented, 

 with an addition of 200 pounds of good linseed cake, is equal in feeding 

 properties to a ton of the best hay. There are great advantages to be 

 derived from a proper admixture of foods as well as from judicious and 

 progressive changes. But all changes should be both gradual and pro- 

 gressive if we are to receive the maximum of benefit from them. 



Carefully conducted experiments have demonstrated that under ordi- 

 narily favorable circumstances the consumption by a steer or bullock 

 of either 8 pounds of bean meal or of 6 pounds of linseed cake will pro- 

 duce one pound increase in the live weight of the animal, but if these 

 foods are used in combination, i. e., if 8 pounds of the one be fed out 

 with 6 pounds of the other, the increase in the live weight of the animal 

 will be not 2 pounds, as we might expect, but 4 pounds ; a conclusive 

 proof that judicious admixture is the economical system. In the pres- 

 ent instance the linseed cake is eminently a fat-producing food, and the 

 bean meal a flesh-forming one. A chemical analysis of foods compared 

 with the actual results obtained from practice, proves that we may ob- 

 tain a pound of flesh from every given number of pounds of dry nutri- 

 tive matter which those foods contain. With the ox it takes 12 or 13 

 pounds of nutrition to yield^a, pound of flesh ; with the sheep, 9 to 10 

 pounds; and with the pig, from 4 to 6 pounds. Thus 100 pounds of 

 swedes contain 90 pounds of water, and are, consequently, when fed off, 

 equal to the production of about a pound of flesh. One hundred pounds 

 of Indian corn or maize, containing only 13 pounds of watery substances, 

 will produce about 9 pounds of flesh. Again, it has been ascertained 

 by careful experiments that equal mixtures of maize, peas, and oats, 

 though 7 per cent, lower in nutritive qualities than corn alone, may be 

 led out, weight for weight, with like results. 



D. STOCK WEIGHT AND MEAT YIELD. 



Measure, weight, and yield of meat. An accepted theory is that 14 

 pounds of live weight in sheep will yield 9 pounds of meat and 5 pounds 

 of offal, and 14 pounds of the live weight of a beast 8 pounds of meat 

 and G pounds of offal. But the proportion between the live weight in 

 the animal and the offal it will produce will depend very,much upon 

 the size of the animal and the degree of fattening. Other things being 

 equal, it will give the highest percentage of meat in the greater weight. 

 A well-bred and well-fed bullock of 120 imperial stone live weight may 

 be estimated to yield from 61 to 64 per cent, of beef. If the same an- 

 imal be fed up to 140 or 160 stone of beef it would probably yield near 

 68 per cent, of beef, whereas one of only 70 or 80 stone would not yield 

 more than 57 to 58 per cent. In each case a well-bred heifer of the 

 same weight will exceed the steer in its beef-producing qualities by 2 

 or 3 per cent. Newly-shorn sheep, weighing about 12 stone, would 

 average from 63 per cent, to 65 per cent., and in proportion for larger 

 weights if at the same time the breed be not one of the coarsest. The 

 more finished the feeding the higher the percentage of meat to offal in 

 everything. 



